Friday, May 6, 2011

patio made-over

remember Sergio? the guy who did such a fantastic job on our garage, well once he had finished the garage, the idea was for him to move inside the house and help us finish the bedrooms. but he was faster than the guys doing the electrical, so we asked him about our sad looking patio.

when we first moved in, it looked like a jungle of poorly cared for plants, so we cleaned it up to make it look more tidy, with the intention to renovate it at some point.
we weren't sure if we should tear it down or just spruce it up, so we did nothing more on it. the aged green plastic on the roof leaked and really blocked so much light from coming into the house, so we knew that had to go, but weren't sure what to replace it with.

I came home from work the first day to a house flooded with light - you could actually see the sky now.
these two agreed it was an improvement as they lay in the sunshine from the comfort of the back of the couch...I didn't realise how quickly it would transform, and kicked myself for not taking a before shot that morning
the next evening it looked like thisand then it was all done!
we decided to go with Suntuf polycarbonate roofing in grey, to give it a little shade but still let in the light. It even blocks UV rays :) but I love how you can still see the sky.from this angle it looks like we have a new house... amazing the difference some small changes make!eventually that window on the right will be replaced with a 9 foot long bi-fold door that will open up onto a deck at the same height as the interior floor. This will then be where we put our dining table as we currently don't have a dining room, only an eat in kitchen.

Then you'll step down onto another level of deck at ground level to give it the illusion that it is an extension of the house into the garden. (we do live in California, so figure we should make the most of our outdoor spaces!)
but that's a few projects away from happening yet. in the mean time, we'll make do with our new entertaining area as is - just in time for summer!

3 comments:

  1. Hi, looks nice. We are doing a deck roof, and want to use Suntuf like you.
    We are trying to figure out what color to choose. You said you used grey, but it looks so clear. Does the grey make you feel like you are out of the sun? Any thoughts on this? Thanks,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Anonymous, thanks. We thought a fair bit about what we should put on the roof out there. We wanted a space that was waterproof, that let the light in, but not too hot.

    The green stuff that was originally there was quite dark and didn't let much light into the house, it also felt more closed in and gave everything (and everyone) a hue of green...

    I wanted to go with clear but was afraid that it would just feel like we were under a magnifying glass, and they make an opaque white, but we wanted to keep it open feeling so that's why we chose the grey. http://www.homedepot.com/Suntuf/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1fw/R-100096441/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

    We are really happy with how it feels, not too hot, not too cold. Just right. If you look at the shadows on the house (in the last 2 photos) you can see how much of a difference this small amount of colour makes. Plus since it cuts UV rays, I can get the sun without getting burnt :)

    Good luck on your deck roof!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails